Good Samaritans

Japanese Return $78M

Cash and other valuables found in earthquake rubble.

Japanese Good Samaritans have returned some $78 million in cash found in the rubble of March's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Officials said the Japanese returned thousands of wallets, which contained $48 million in cash. An estimated 5,700 safes washed ashore, containing $30 million in cash; one safe alone had $1 million. The National Police Agency said nearly all the valuables found have been returned to their owners. Koetsu Saiki of the Miyagi Prefectural Police said the police had to cut apart the metal doors of the safes because the keyholes were filled with mud—but the real difficulty came when they tried to track down the owners through bank books or other forms of identification found in a safe. As more and more safes were found, police ended up storing them in parking garages and meeting rooms.